Akamai Guardicore Segmentation vs Cisco ACI comparison

Akamai and Cisco are both solutions in the Cloud and Data Center Security category. Akamai is ranked #1 with an average rating of 7.8, while Cisco is ranked #6 with an average rating of 9.0. Akamai holds a 22.2% mindshare in CDCS, compared to Cisco’s 4.9% mindshare. Additionally, 87% of Akamai users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 85% of Cisco users who would recommend it.

Akamai Guardicore Segmentation

Read 18 Akamai Guardicore Segmentation reviews

8,287 Views
5,552 Comparison Views

87% willing to recommend

Cisco ACI

Read 102 Cisco ACI reviews

4,164 Views
2,748 Comparison Views

85% willing to recommend

Akamai Guardicore Segmentation

Cisco ACI

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jul 27, 2025

Cisco ACI and Akamai Guardicore Segmentation compete in the network automation and security platforms category. Cisco ACI holds a slight advantage due to its robust integration capabilities and centralized management, making it an attractive choice for existing environments.

Features: Cisco ACI excels in automation, scalability, and programmability, offering centralized management for diverse environments like VMware and Azure. Akamai Guardicore Segmentation's strengths lie in powerful visibility, ease of policy creation, and comprehensive platform support alongside strong micro-segmentation capabilities.

Room for Improvement: Cisco ACI faces challenges with complexity and a steep learning curve, requiring improvements in documentation and third-party service integration. Akamai Guardicore Segmentation needs enhancements in policy management automation, cost-effectiveness, and better integration with leading security appliances.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Cisco ACI's deployment process is challenging, particularly in complex environments, but it benefits from comprehensive technical support, though inconsistencies in service quality are noted. Akamai Guardicore Segmentation offers easier initial setup due to its modern design; however, it requires improvement in its support resources.

Pricing and ROI: Cisco ACI is viewed as expensive, with licensing costs as a barrier but justified by potential long-term savings and operational efficiency. Akamai Guardicore Segmentation commands a premium price, with advanced capabilities providing enhanced network security and operational efficiency that justify the investment despite high costs.

To learn more, read our detailed Akamai Guardicore Segmentation vs. Cisco ACI Report (Updated: July 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Akamai Guardicore Segmentation vs. Cisco ACI

July 2025

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Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

Akamai Guardicore Segmentation

Ranking in Cloud and Data Center Security

1st

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Cloud Workload Protection Platforms (CWPP) (11th), Breach and Attack Simulation (BAS) (6th), Microsegmentation Software (3rd)

Cisco ACI

Ranking in Cloud and Data Center Security

6th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.5

Number of Reviews

102

Ranking in other categories

Network Virtualization (1st), Software Defined Networking (SDN) (2nd)

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2025, in the Cloud and Data Center Security category, the mindshare of Akamai Guardicore Segmentation is 22.2%, down from 24.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Cisco ACI is 4.9%, down from 6.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Cloud and Data Center Security Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Akamai Guardicore Segmentation	22.2%
Cisco ACI	4.9%
Other	72.9%

Cloud and Data Center Security

Featured Reviews

Uday Varma

Solution Architecht at Inspira Enterprise

Offers granular control and ease of policy creation with features like telemetry and micro-segmentation but incident tagging is missing

Our customers use the solution for micro-segmentation within the data center or cloud environments. One customer uses it for their on-premises infrastructure, deployed at the code level across their massive network. Another customer uses it in a data center to monitor microsegmentation for their 500-node workload. Moreover, Akamai Guardicore Segmentation has helped our customers manage and secure traffic between different applications or workloads. Earlier, they were using VMware NSX-v, which offered good logging for distributed services on an analytical level. However, Akamai Guardicore Segmentation provides them with better overall visibility and granular control over-segmentation, even for inter-application and inter-routing traffic.

Read full review

Rahul Khandelwal

Network Technical Manager at KPMG

Enables streamlined data center management with automation and application-centric design

The main features of Cisco ACI that I really appreciate are the application-centric and network-centric designs, allowing you to create your network according to your application. That's helpful, and it's good for one-time implementation. The automation capabilities are really helpful. We deployed one data center using Terraform, and after deployment, many automation features are available, which can be very helpful. Based on my experience, Cisco ACI provides substantial capability; you can design your network accordingly and it's part of the SDN family, providing many benefits to the organization, especially when moving from traditional network infrastructure. Many organizations are actually using the old traditional Nexus infrastructure or some old data center devices. It gives you significant control and one-time implementation capabilities, and it also provides better performance and security. Functionality-wise, Cisco ACI provides integration using automation. We implemented it through Terraform, which was easy. Those features are available, so I don't think any new features are needed right now; something new could come up, but they have implemented many improvements over the years.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"We like the centralized management of the firewalls. Until we installed Guardicore Centra, we managed all our firewalls individually, so making changes was complicated, difficult, and time-consuming."

"The most valuable features of the solution are the maps and ring fencing that help monitor events."

"Guardicore Centra offers the best coverage specifically in backward compatibility with legacy operating systems."

"The tool is a complete package that offers many features like visibility. You can get a graph with real-time workflows and visibility into server-to-server communication. We get visibility into many things happening within our environment."

"From day one, you get threat intelligence. It will immediately block active threats, which has been useful."

"That is primarily because I've seen increased rules. It's kind of caught us a little off guard. With GuardiCore, I have had to deal with their technical support and engineering team in Israel. They are amazing. They are very quick to adapt."

"Its deception features are great, providing a rich telemetry of lured origins, and are a great resource for any active defense strategy."

"The tool's most valuable feature is its visibility."

More Akamai Guardicore Segmentation pros

"What's most valuable in Cisco ACI is that it isn't like the legacy infrastructure where you have a lot of complexity in a TTR architecture. What I like most about Cisco ACI is that you can control those devices from a single console, even if you have three hundred devices. You can manage the entire infrastructure from a single point of contact, so Cisco ACI is a time saver. Another exclusive feature of Cisco ACI is its API interface that lets you enhance automation within the environment. You can manage your entire data center from a single interface through Cisco ACI. If you want to upgrade three hundred devices in one click, you can do that, and within one hour, all three hundred devices will be upgraded. I also like that Cisco keeps enhancing the product by adding different features, so there have been five major releases of Cisco ACI. Another valuable feature of the solution is that it's more user-friendly than Aruba and Juniper."

"Because we can use automation processes with this platform, we have been able to free up our IT department's time."

"The biggest benefit has been that it has improved communication between my endpoints in the data center."

"I like features like policy control and micro-segmentation."

"PBR has been beneficial for network efficiency."

"It has made it much easier to deploy and make changes in the data center versus the previous infrastructure, which was NX-OS based."

"The most valuable features are the automation with the different systems for the software development and the ability to provision switches in hours rather than days."

"ACI's most valuable feature is sizing - you can easily find the sizing of the data, which means the data speed, CPU, and virtualization can be determined."

More Cisco ACI pros

Cons

"Kubernetes is not installed in the way we need it."

"It would be very helpful for beginners if the solution had more windows to help with the terms inside instead of going to the documentation."

"They can maybe improve their customer service just because they are kind of a small organization, and customer service isn't as big as others such as VMware."

"It doesn't support a PAAC solution (Platforma as a service) in the cloud."

"In our version, when using the terminal server, we cannot exclude user tasks for each session."

"Supports become difficult when it's for a big organization. For a small organization, medium organization, it still makes sense, however, for a big organization, it makes life difficult."

"Guardicore Centra should incorporate automation so that we don't require to write custom scripts and APIs. The tool also has limitations on rules where it allows only sixty thousand rules. Our clients have also commented that there are too many manual clicks and effort to do changes. I think that the incorporation of automation can help our clients make changes with confidence and without the possibility of human error."

"Customers would want to see the cost improved."

More Akamai Guardicore Segmentation cons

"It is still not mature and has room to grow. As with any product out there, it requires time to develop."

"It's a very complex system, as it should be. It's a new way of thinking about networking. Cisco ACI adds complexity. Cisco ACI is extremely complex. That's not necessarily a complaint, as much as it is a fact."

"I would like for them to develop integration with AWS."

"It needs more integration with public clouds, like Azure and AWS."

"Cisco should provide more examples of code in their website. Something that other people can use. There is a great place in the development area."

"The initial setup was a bit complex. ACI was just out at that time, and there wasn't support at that time."

"They should make it easier for the network people to do automated solutions."

"Technical support needs to be more helpful. It's rare that you get a knowledgeable person."

More Cisco ACI cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Guardicore Centra provides better value for money than NSX, was the other solution that we looked at, which was too expensive for what it does."

"The pricing is too high."

"Compared to the pricing we were seeing from both Illumio and Edgewise, Guardicore was very competitive."

"This is not a cheap solution but you have to consider the bigger picture, which is what it is giving you."

"GuardiCore has made some new changes to the license now. We've seen monthly and annual licenses based on a subscription. We have a few clients that pay anywhere from $25,000 a year."

"Akamai Guardicore Segmentation is expensive."

"The price is the same as other products in the market. There's no price argument to choose one or the other product, it will cost the customer approximately the same."

"The solution is reasonably priced and I would rate it a six out of ten. The tool's licensing costs are yearly."

More Akamai Guardicore Segmentation pricing and cost advice

"The pricing, including both hardware and licenses, is reasonable."

"It saves time and resources."

"The cost is fine."

"We used Cisco Professional Services for the deployment. They were outstanding, but very expensive."

"The good thing about Cisco is that you can trade in your old products to replace them with ACI."

"Cisco ACI is more expensive than Juniper, however, ACI is not the most expensive option."

"We have seen time improvement using the product."

"If you compare the licensing and total cost of ACI, it's cheaper than NSX because of the licensing fees. If you are going for full NSX features it will be too expensive, especially the next-generation firewalling feature."

More Cisco ACI pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

17%

Computer Software Company

15%

Manufacturing Company

Insurance Company

Computer Software Company

20%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Manufacturing Company

Healthcare Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	6
Midsize Enterprise	3
Large Enterprise	9

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	21
Midsize Enterprise	18
Large Enterprise	87

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Guardicore Centra?

I would rate the pricing a six out of ten, where one is cheap and ten is expensive. I know other micro-segmentation tools like Cisco or Illumio, and so I think they are in the middle.

See all answers

What do you like most about Guardicore Infection Monkey?

Initially, I liked the telemetry part. But later, we used the microsegmentation features that we were able to deploy and found that they really stood out from other vendors. It allows us to see mi...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Guardicore Infection Monkey?

When we have more than one interface, we can only have one policy for both interfaces. Normally, you have assets with a production interface and a server interface that are only for management. But...

See all answers

What are the biggest differences between Cisco ACI and VMware NSX?

There are some very major differences between both the Products and to name a few. -Cisco ACI have physical network gear (9K Switches) where the Code runs in ACI Policy Mode & the UCS server wh...

See all answers

What are the biggest differences between Cisco ACI and VMware NSX?

Once you know your way around the Cisco ecosystem, using Cisco ACI is not so difficult. It is a global product, so when you change one interface, changes are automatically reflected on every switch...

See all answers

What do you like most about Cisco ACI?

The flexibility of adding new components with minimal impact on existing services running in the data center is a key benefit of this ACI-based solution.

See all answers

Comparisons

Illumio vs Akamai Guardicore Segmentation

Compared 45% of the time

VMware NSX vs Akamai Guardicore Segmentation

Compared 10% of the time

Cisco Secure Workload vs Akamai Guardicore Segmentation

Compared 9% of the time

Zero Networks vs Akamai Guardicore Segmentation

Compared 3% of the time

Trend Micro Deep Security vs Akamai Guardicore Segmentation

Compared 3% of the time

More Akamai Guardicore Segmentation Competitors

Cisco Secure Workload vs Cisco ACI

Compared 24% of the time

VMware NSX vs Cisco ACI

Compared 19% of the time

HPE SDN vs Cisco ACI

Compared 12% of the time

Illumio vs Cisco ACI

Compared 10% of the time

Juniper Contrail Networking vs Cisco ACI

Compared 7% of the time

More Cisco ACI Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Akamai Guardicore Segmentation

September 2025

Download Akamai Guardicore Segmentation product report

Buyer's Guide

Cisco ACI

September 2025

Download Cisco ACI product report

Also Known As

Guardicore Centra, GuardiCore

No data available

Overview

Akamai Guardicore Segmentation is a software-based microsegmentation solution that provides the simplest, fastest, and most intuitive way to enforce Zero Trust principles. It enables you to prevent malicious lateral movement in your network through precise segmentation policies, visuals of activity within your IT environment, and network security alerts. Akamai Guardicore Segmentation works across your data centers, multicloud environments, and endpoints. It is faster to deploy than infrastructure segmentation approaches and provides you with unparalleled visibility and control of your network.

Akamai

Cisco ACI automates data center networking, centralizing management and configuration of diverse network environments. It's used for micro-segmentation, replacing legacy networks, and deploying software-defined networking.

Cisco ACI enables seamless integration with cloud platforms and multi-site connectivity. It ensures high availability and redundancy, supports network-centric applications, enhances security, and facilitates agile service implementations across different regions and data centers. The platform offers high throughput, ease of configuration, centralized management, and programmability. Users find value in its single management interface, policy-based routing, Service Graphs, and simplified deployment. Cisco ACI also excels in scalability, automation, low latency, and supports data center expansion efficiently.

What are the key features of Cisco ACI?

High Throughput: Ensures fast data transmission and network efficiency.
Ease of Configuration: Simplifies setup and changes to network configurations.
Centralized Management: Provides a single interface for managing the entire network.
Micro-Segmentation: Enhances security by isolating network segments.
Integration with VMware: Seamlessly integrates with VMware environments.
Scalability: Easily expands to accommodate growing organizational needs.
Automation Capabilities: Reduces manual tasks through advanced automation.
Policy-Based Routing: Optimizes network traffic based on set policies.

What benefits should users look for when evaluating Cisco ACI?

Seamless integration with cloud platforms and multi-site connectivity.
High availability and redundancy ensuring consistent service uptime.
Enhanced security with micro-segmentation and policy-based control.
Agility in service implementations across regions and data centers.
Efficiency in network management with centralized control.

Organizations in industries such as finance, healthcare, and technology implement Cisco ACI to modernize data centers, improve security, and streamline network operations. Its capabilities support expanding infrastructure, integrating with cloud services, and managing complex network architectures with minimal effort.

Cisco

Sample Customers

Santander, Frontier Airlines, OpenLink, Intermountain Healthcare, Cellcom, BancoBASE

Bowling Green State University, du, Qatar University

Buyer's Guide

Akamai Guardicore Segmentation vs. Cisco ACI

July 2025

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